Tuesday, August 28

"Blowies"

It is not even Spring yet, but the last few warm days have brought a rush of 'Blowies'. They are blowflies, & are odious creatures, & I dont wish to have to give them house space. But the dratted things have been invading our house.
Please excuse the terrible photo, I should have nipped over to Aunty Evil's to nick her DH's pic of the Blowie.

At last count there were 12 carcasses lying under the lounge room window, & several in various other rooms also. We have a dispenser that automatically sends out jets of a non toxic insect repellent, which does seem to kill them, but not instantly, of course. GOM has been very busy vacuuming the offending bodies.

The dogs pause to sniff, & move disdainfully off, though friends say their youngest Golden Retriever wolfs them down! I think he is so eager for food, anything that doesn't get away, gets inhaled!

Blowflies dont normally appear until the summer. They are looked upon as the harbingers of Summer, in this part of the world. I am wondering if some small animal has died, & that has brought the blowflies out. I cannot smell anything unpleasant, but I suppose it need not be that close.

We have just been having these really warm days, with bright skies & little breeze. Perfect magical days. And it is to be clear tonight for the Lunar Eclipse. So I might try to get a pic or two.



Daughter J called in to collect Sil's keys & SG was here to see us. The dogs disgraced theselves a little, barking with excitement at loved 'family'. Honey even played with SG, which is unusual for her. I think she regards him as an annoying rival for my affections.

Daughter J is a Care Worker. She loves her work, & has a soft & kind heart. She tells me little stories from time to time about her work. Some cases are very sad. I hope I never have to rely on others for the basics.

It was one of my mother's greatest fears, that she would have to have care or go into a home. As it happened I was able to care for her, for what turned out to be the last weeks of her life.


And here is a piece of strange fabric I recently found in an Op Shop. I think it may have a little polyester in it, but I am not a Quilt snob, & the unusual pattern somehow appealed to me. It speaks of jungles & wild animals somehow.

I moved the pic, so dont think it will enlarge on clicking this time.

*******

My Beloved Brother writes me wonderful emails, telling me of his life, & times.

I thought I would like to share this with you, from his yesterday's Epistle.

I am poised I suspect to be plunged into a different type of work , or at least a differing method. We had a meeting to discuss " Upskill" which was / is the project I was initially to help . Of the four Managers there we had four different and quite widely differing definitions of Upskill , which is what I have been asking about over the last few weeks -- Not only do some of them seem not to be on the same page so to say , A couple of them are also not in the same book , or indeed form of language . Interesting .

Unfortunately this seems to true of so many businesses today. People seem not to talk to each other, or policy setting seems to be in the Too Hard basket.
He is currently training staff to operate machinery. He has repeatedly asked for a computer, & repeatedly been promised one- soon. It is a difficult task, as very few of the workers speak English as a first language, & so he has to really work to make himself understood. He is very interested in language, & has learnt quite a lot of Samoan, & can understand quite a lot, & also speak a little.


Roberta Flack, You've Got a Friend.

22 comments:

Alice said...

Is there a more annoying sound than one blowfly in a room, especially if you want to sleep?

Strangely enough, although blowflies look more repulsive, it is said that the small houseflies actually carry more germs than the blowies.

My float said...

Oh how very true. Your comment about businesses are spot on. Sometimes I feel I just don't fit this world...and I'm only in my 30s!

The quilt piece is beautiful , the colours are very rich. I'm hanging out to see what you do with it!

Tracey Petersen said...

the fabric does have an african look to it. It will almost be a shame to cut it!

Joyce said...

We have a huge influx of flies right now trying to get in for the winter. A sure sign of autumn here. THe fabric looks like pictures I'v seen online of mudcloth. I don't know much about it except that it's african. You might want to research mudcloth and see if that's what it is. It's gorgeous, whatever it is.

Aunty Evil said...

Not a blowie, but an actual Bogon moth tonight in our lounge room, bashing itself madly against the ceiling, driven to distraction by the light.

At least they keep the cat amused.

Mrs. Goodneedle said...

Yuck! I'm not a fan of insects of any kind, these do appear to be quite repulsive. The found fabric is lovely and interesting, can't wait to see what it becomes!

Joni said...

Can't say I envy your new housemates, I have a few of my own to swat! If you own cattle then you own flies!!

ancient one said...

Hate the blowflies. Hate all flies. If I can keep the back wooden door shut, we do pretty good keeping them out. Somehow they can get in around the storm door if the wooden door isn't shut tight. So usually the first words out of my mouth when I hear the back door pop open is..."shut the door"...LOL

All businesses are having the same things going on. I guess most of us will need to learn spanish. Most of the time when they come they bring their school age children along to do the talking. It gets interesting sometimes..LOL

We tend to use sign language. Making all kinds of gestures that no one understands out of frustration! LOL

Fairlie - www.feetonforeignlands.com said...

Eewww...blowies. I detest them. I have a scary childhood memory of a dying blowie spewing forth baby maggots...have I grossed you out enough now?

Leslie: said...

As you begin to prepare for springtime and its bugs, we here in the northern hemisphere prepare for fall. The bugs that bug (lol) me are the leatherjackets with their ungainly long legs. They fly in the house if I don't keep the screen door closed. They're not "too" creepy but they're SO BIG!!!

Jo said...

Meggie, I was in a fruit store the other day, and the owner was swatting flies with an electric fly swatter. I was fascinated and just stood there watching him. Every time he touched a fly, it went //ZAP// and the fly bit the dust. It was mezmerizing.

Ya, ya, I know - I need to get a life :-)

Cheers,
Josie

Rowan said...

I absolutely agree with you about companies, particularly large ones, being a complete shambles on the policy and management front. The left hand doesn't seem to know what the right hand is doing and there is so much personal power base stuff that the company and its customers are very much a secondary concern.
The start of spring sounds delightful - the blowflies definitely don't:)

The Sagittarian said...

Oh, flies full stop - I hate 'em! My husband drives us mad chasing them about with a rolled up newspaper (yuck, wee dead things all over the place cos they're not fussy where they fall); for Xmas the kids got him a "Zapper" - like a tennis racket but run with batteries and it zaps flies dead. Not smelly like the other methods but just as messy, and even more irritating than having him charge about with the newspaper!

molly said...

Flies-yuk! Fabric-yum!

Linda G. said...

Flies! Bahhh.....
I want one of those zappers josie saw in the grocery store.

Linda G. said...

Oh, I do love the material though!

velcro said...

we have weird flies here that fly in completely straight lines and change direction with geometric precision. no idea what they are

Melinda said...

Don't get me started on beauracracy. We're dealing with that with J.T.'s school right now. Rules and ways of doing things that make NO sense. Blowflys may be the single most annoying animal on earth. For those of us in South Georgia, USA they are closely followed by gnats.

riseoutofme said...

Must be nice to be looking forward to Summer instead of saying adios ... Even with the flies!

Fabric looks like it might have been batiked?

meggie said...

Hi everyone, Thanks for all your comments, lovely to read you all!
The fabric may well be Mudcloth as Joyce suggested. I had never heard of it before, but Googled it, & see it does resemble those very individual, interesting, fabrics. Considering the woman only wanted 20c for it, I gave her a dollar, & still felt lucky! It was a Church run shop.

Unknown said...

The positive thing about the flies must be that summer is nearing :) I hate all insects, in fact I am scared to death of them.

Tracey said...

We get 'miggies' here in the Swartland of the western Cape. They are spring creatures, and come out when the weather starts getting warmer. They are tiny insects, make no noise and are almost impossible to see, but their bites swell and fester and produce flu-like symptoms. We get heartily weary of our long, wet winters and long for summer, but it does come with, well, miggies. And mosquitoes. And snakes. And the farmers start spraying their crops from planes, which gives everyone hayfever... By the time summer's really here, we're wishing for winter again...